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Dr. Pedro Noguera is a professor of education at the University of California, Berkeley. He is also past president of the Berkeley School Board. His in depth analysis of the causes of and assessment of succesful programs for reducing and preventing youth violence is published here by In Motion Magazine as a series of hyper-linked articles which can be downloaded in segments. All sections can be reached from the intro page, or readers can follow from one section to another.
Case Study II:
Beginning in the summer of 1989 and continuing through the winter of 1991, several violent disturbances and incidents involving teenagers occurred on Telegraph Avenue in Berkeley. *48 Given the area's history as a focal point for numerous protests and violent conflicts, news of rioting on Telegraph did not initially seem out of the ordinary to most observers. However, what made these disturbances unique was that they involved large numbers of Black teenagers from communities across the Bay Area who congregated on the avenue on weekend nights. Though the vast majority were there for nothing more than a slice of pizza and harmless fun, there were also groups and individuals who descended upon Telegraph Avenue with the intention of committing crimes and victimizing college students.
After several weekends of violence, which included a substantial rise in robberies, aggravated assaults, rapes, and looting,*49 the city of Berkeley began deploying large numbers of police officers to the area on Friday and Saturday evenings, with the hope that such a presence would frighten away criminal elements. With 50 to 60 officers present in the five-block area, the number of violent incidents declined substantially within a relatively short period of time. However, the massive police presence also had the effect of scaring away many of the tourists and customers who frequented restaurants and stores in the area. Business owners complained that while they wanted relief from the crowds of teenagers, the city's strategy had hurt their revenues. City officials themselves began to question their strategy for addressing the problem. Though dispatching large numbers of police officers to the area had reduced the number of violent incidents involving young people, the cost of sustaining this operation was beyond what the city could afford.
Increasingly, pressure mounted for a more limited operation aimed specifically at driving crowds of Black youth from the area. Several business owners called for the creation of a curfew, and some advocated the enlistment of the FBI to respond to what they claimed was a growing number of racially motivated violent crimes. Students and University officials also expressed concern about the lack of safety in the area, but were generally less willing to endorse measures that might appear to undermine civil liberties. In keeping with Berkeley's radical image, still another segment of the community decried the police action as fascistic and vowed to oppose any strategy in which law enforcement targeted kids.
Faced with few viable options for resolving the problem and a deeply divided community, city officials returned to a strategy that had proven effective in the past: they created a large community task force to develop recommendations for solving the problem. The task force was composed of representatives from each of the relevant constituencies in the community including youth from Berkeley. For three months, the task force and various subcommittees met in an effort to build consensus on a set of recommendations. As could have been expected, differences emerged, discussions often deteriorated into arguments, and the group process gradually proved too exhausting for some. Eventually, a breakthrough did occur. As a result of conversations with young people held by a subcommittee, a recommendation emerged, calling for the creation of a youth group that would serve as an escort service and monitoring patrol on the Avenue. Unlike other proposals that had been debated, this one found broad agreement: the idea that young people could play a role in mediating conflicts and promoting safety through their presence in the area on weekend nights appealed to most of the members and won the group's endorsement.
As a result, R.E.S.P.E.C.T. (Racial and Ethnic Sharing Providing Empowerment to our Community Today) was created in the summer of 1993 through funding from the Berkeley City Council. *50 Composed of young people from a variety of racial and ethnic backgrounds, the organization was charged with helping to provide security on Telegraph Avenue in a non-threatening, nonconfrontational manner. Explicit in the charge was the admonition that R.E.S.P.E.C.T guides were not to engage in any form of police work. Wearing dark jackets and hats and armed with radios, the guides were to report all suspicious activities to the police, provide escort service to individuals desiring company when walking home at night, and attempt to mediate conflicts involving young people on Telegraph Avenue.
R.E.S.P.E.C.T was one part of a package of new measures adopted to address problems of youth violence on Telegraph Avenue. This package also included midnight basketball, a mentorship/apprenticeship program, and the city's sponsorship of regular weekend parties held at venues throughout the community, with security and supervision provided. It also included preventive measures such as strict parking enforcement in the Telegraph area to reduce cruising and a visible, though less extensive, police presence.
The combination worked. In the two years since R.E.S.P.E.C.T. and the other measures were put in place, crimes by young people in the area have diminished substantially. In fact, city officials have been so pleased by the impact of R.E.S.P.E.C.T. on Telegraph Avenue that they have expanded the program to other areas of the city, and have pledged to continue funding for the project for the next five years. *51 The Berkeley Police Department has been one of the strongest supporters for the program. Whereas the allocation of one police officer to the area cost the city approximately $100,000.00 annually in salaries and benefits, the entire R.E.S.P.E.C.T. program costs $110,000.00 annually. (In 1992 this included salaries for two coordinators and seven guides.) Police support for the program is based on the fact that R.E.S.P.E.C.T. guides allow the police to avoid unnecessary confrontations with young people and panhandlers. According to Berkeley Police Captain Roy Misner:
As a strategy for violence prevention the R.E.S.P.E.C.T. program was successful because it did not rely upon intimidation and coercion. Involving young people in a solution --the development of the security program -- changed the mood on the Avenue and greatly reduced the tensions that had been growing between young people and adults in the area. The presence of the young R.E.S.P.E.C.T. guides in their jackets and hats communicated to other young people that they were not being targeted for harassment because they were young and Black. R.E.S.P.E.C.T. allowed young people to take responsibility for creating a safer environment on the Avenue, a goal that most youth could understand and accept.
